Colourful & Quirky Down To Earth Wedding

Let’s start the week with a bang shall we? A riot of colour, fun and happiness surrounded today’s couple and their down to earth wedding celebrations.

WWW readers Becky and Will were hitched on the 10th September 2016 at Oxleaze Barn, Gloucestershire in the beautiful Cotswolds countryside. A quirky, festival style party was order of the day complete with live music, street food (hello pizza and gin) and ping pong. They wanted to hold as much as their day outside to ensure relaxed vibes and plenty of fun and games for their guests. They took the autumnal colours into their day and injected some wonderfully multicoloured décor and details. There were lanterns hanging in the stone barn, ribbons adorning pretty chairs and mismatched bridesmaids dresses galore.

One of my very fave elements though has to be the seasonal flower farm grown florals. They were extraordinary and included richly toned dahlias, heathers and berries. Oh my! They looked marvellous against Becky’s champagne beaded gown and she looked so amazing. Will decided on a cool check suit teamed with lego Spurs buttonhole, how brilliant?

I am absolutely head over heels for the images from Jen Marino today, thank you Jen.

THE PROPOSAL | (Will) We had a couple of days off from work and went down to Brighton since we both love the seaside! We spent the day eating fish and chips, playing on the arcade machines on the pier and paddling in the sea. Becky was trying to get me to go on a ride at the end of the pier but I didn’t want to leave my bag whilst we went on them as it had the engagement ring in! Becky, of course, didn’t know this so just thought I was being a bore and got pretty mad me! I finally asked the big question once we got to our room in the hotel from our balcony overlooking the sea. I have no idea what I said but Becky was so shocked that she proceeded to say ‘Are you serious?’ repeatedly for around 20 minutes before finally saying yes! It was hilarious and actually turned out perfectly.

THE VISION | We wanted a down-to-earth, fun, quirky wedding and as much colour as we could fit into it! We really wanted the day to represent both of us. Neither of us are that traditional so we went with our guts. We saw it like a big party, or a festival with street food, live music, ping pong and cans of beer. We didn’t want a big sit-down 3-course meal and we wanted people to be able to enjoy the day with lots of entertainment and things to do.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Inevitably it had it’s stressful moments but we knew the kind of wedding we wanted which helped. We split the workload as much as possible and we tried to make all the decisions mutually. We booked the big things as early as possible and then chilled out for a few months before the last minute rush!

THE VENUE | Oxleaze Barn in the Cotswolds. From the moment we saw the venue we loved it. Becky saw it first and then we both had a second look a couple of days later. We booked the date in there and then, as there was only one date still available in 2016! The barn itself is beautiful but what made the venue for us was the outside space. The courtyard is huge and was the focus for most of our day. We wanted as much of the wedding outside as possible and although rain meant we had to have the ceremony inside the rest of the day saw clear skies! Everyone at the venue was incredibly helpful and Katharine in particular made sure the preparations and the day itself went as smoothly as it could have done!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | (Becky) In my head I had the idea of a white, short, simple 50’s style dress. But I saw my dress at The National Wedding Show and loved it. It was ankle length, champagne coloured with beading all over. My shoes were ballet shoes that were dyed to match my dress with some of the beading added. I studied ballet my whole life and am still such a fan of dance so they were really special. Being from South Wales my necklace was made of clogau gold (welsh gold) that my mum gave me and was a pendent with an elephant. Will gave me a delicate bracelet that had the infinity symbol on, something I use to meditate to when I am nervous so it was perfect and kept me calm all day.

FINDING THE DRESS | (Becky) Amazingly the dress was the first one I’d tried on! I loved it straight away so was comfortable with my choice. I obviously started to doubt myself in the weeks afterwards thinking it shouldn’t have been that easy but it seems it was!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | (Will) I wanted to wear something a bit different and ideally I wanted a cool patterned blazer with plain trousers. I found King and Allen online and went to visit them in Liverpool Street in London. I looked through hundreds of cloths and took away a few samples of my preferred patterns. After choosing what I wanted I had a first fitting and then two further fittings to make sure the suit was fitting perfectly as it was being made. I was delighted with the final suit and I loved the orange in the check pattern and also on the back of my waistcoat. My buttonhole had a small lego Spurs player attached to it (I’m a massive fan). My mum somehow found a tie that matched the exact shade of orange to complete the look!

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We wanted to have readings that meant a lot to us personally. Becky’s favourite book is Jane Eyre so we had an extract from that. Will’s favourite album is by Marc Cohn and we had the lyrics from one of the songs, True Companion, read out. We then had a passage from Sleepless in Seattle as we both love the film and the words Tom Hanks says about why his wife was so special are really beautiful.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | We had 5 beautiful bridesmaids and a beautiful bridesman! To match the colourful feel of the wedding each of the bridesmaids picked their own dresses from ASOS. They were all knee-length, pastel coloured and floaty. They wore flowers crowns on their head that I bought from a market stand at the seaside. Their hair was styled in a loose braid with extra tiny flowers. Bo, our bridesman wore chinos, a pastel shirt and brown braces that were all his own.

THE FLOWERS | I found our flowers on a blog! We used a flower farm called Green and Gorgeous. As they were wild flowers we were warned that we would have to wait and see what flowers grow that August but that made it more fun. Since we had no colour scheme we went to town, using bright oranges, pinks, deep reds and lots of heathers and berries. They were delivered the day before and we arranged them around ourselves, using jars and coloured bottles.

THE CAKE | Instead of having one wedding cake we thought we’d invite all our friends and family to make whatever goodies they wanted and bring them along. The response was incredible and we ended up with two tables crammed full of cakes, tray bakes, flapjacks, cake pops, cheesecakes and many, many more! I think everyone left the wedding with goodie bags full of leftovers! It felt so much more special to have everyone play a little part in our day. Plus you can never have enough cake!!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Jen Marino. Jen was absolutely amazing! When Becky first found her website and portfolio we knew she was exactly what we wanted. Jen was so helpful at all stages and she was even kind enough to spend a day with us in Brighton for a seaside engagement shoot a couple of months before the wedding. On the day itself Jen knew exactly what she wanted and with the help of her wonderful mum we ended up with some incredible photos. They are soft and whimsical and just magical! Everyone who has seen them loves them! They mean so much to us and we will have them forever so we are so grateful to Jen.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Instead of a sit down meal we had a relaxed afternoon tea from the Chipping Norton Tea Set which everyone loved. Then for our evening food we had delicious pizza from Lucabuca. This was a big hit!

For our evening entertainment we had a band perform called The Standard. We had seen them perform at Cowley Carnival in Oxford the year before and so tracked them down. They took a mix of songs and added a ska twist which made them amazing to dance to, the dance-floor was full all night.

We bought a Ping-Pong table and Will’s sister designed us a chalkboard with Ping-Pong rules on one side and beer pong rules on the other!! We had the Travelling Gin Company who served gin cocktails from big vintage bikes. We also hired a cool lady who did face and body painting on all of the guests – she was a big hit. Our wedding favours were done by both sets of our parents. To represent Wales my parents wrapped up mini heart shaped welsh cakes for all our guests, and Will’s mum is a fused-glass artist and made each guest their own beautiful coaster with the wedding date engraved on there.

The car that took Becky to the wedding carried on the colourful theme, as it was an Indian ambassador car complete with mini chandelier and covered in sparkles inside.

THE HONEYMOON | The day after the wedding we went to Cornwall for 4 nights for our mini-moon! We stayed in The Scarlet in Mawgan Porth for 2 nights and then in the Padstow Townhouse in Padstow for 2 nights. Both hotels were absolutely incredible and were exactly what we needed after the stresses of the previous weeks!

We asked for contributions towards a honeymoon fund for our wedding presents and everyone was extremely generous! We went to the west coast of the USA in April 2017 and had the most amazing time. We started in Los Angeles and then hired a car for a road trip up the coast to San Francisco. We hiked and did yoga and ate amazing food! We also went to Portland and Seattle before finishing things off back in LA at Disneyland! We both love Disney so it had to be involved somewhere!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Dancing together for hours on the dance floor! Our really silly 70’s style first dance to September (Earth, Wind and Fire). Wrapping up in blankets, toasting marshmallows over the fire pit. Drinking cans of Budweiser and playing ping pong. Becky’s Granny getting face painted! Seeing all our favourite people together in one room.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Enjoy it! It’s so easy to get carried away with all the small details but do it the way you want to do it and it will all work out perfectly!